Westport's Sunrise Rotary Holds Successful Super Bowl Food Drive

From left: Tom Lowrie, Joe Hawley and June Getrayer hold a food drive at Stop & Shop with the Westport Sunrise Rotary to refill the shelves at the food pantry at the Gillespie Center in Westport.
Photo Credit: Ann Lowrie

The drive was tremendously successful. Westport shoppers (and surely a few from other communities) filled 160 cartons of food and other non-perishable items, along with a good deal of cash, altogether almost $10,000.

Jeff Wieser, Homes With Hope’s President and CEO, said last year’s was the largest one-day drive he had seen, and this year’s was its equal.

SaCuto told Stop & Shop's manager, David Faccin, “In the name of Homes With Hope and the Westport Sunrise Rotary, I want to thank you for the support and cooperation our organizations received from you and all the Westport Stop & Shop employees, to make our Food Drive this year another full success.”

As the day was ending, Faccin told SaCuto, “Great job,” and said he was pleased the food drive was a success, and added that Stop & Shop is happy to support the community.

The club held its drive on Super Bowl Saturday because it wanted a day of its own, not one before the more often chosen food-centered days. As the Super Bowl has grown in popularity, the Saturday before has become one of the busiest food sales day of the year — and Friday’s snowstorm could only have made it better.

SaCuto commented on the impact of the drive on the club, “This community event, in addition to helping the hungry, contributes not less significantly to enormous teamwork and camaraderie amongst our club members and between us and the organizations with which we partner for Service Above Self… That really makes it all worthwhile.”

Rotary International is committed to Service Above Self. If you’re interested in giving back to your community and hearing interesting speakers, e-mail Ron Holtz at ronaldholtz@gmail.com.